The Territory of the Prison

In 1952, little Gorka and his parents finally move into separate housing. The apartment is actually a double stall in the stable of a women's monastery on the outskirts of Bugulma. The monastery was converted into a prison, and the... stalls of the adjoining stable were made into apartments. Bugulma becomes for Gorka a prototype of the big world. Here he will grow up, make friends, fall in love, do foolish things, and perform noble acts. "The Territory of the Prison" — this is how the residents themselves call this house — truly becomes for the child, and later the young adult, a place where he learns to be truly free. This novel is a coming-of-age story against the backdrop of significant events: the death of Stalin, the exposure of the cult of personality, Gagarin's flight into space, the sixties movement. In this book, the measured breath of great history astonishingly combines, as in the novel "The Fog Lays on the Old Steps," with the charm of "street" romance, as in "The Word of a Kid."